Vela Creations is an in-depth resource for off grid living. The site documents our research and experiences, hoping that they might help others interested in pursuing this lifestyle. This blog is designed to document our day to day experiences as we build our new, sustainable homestead.
If you are interested in seeing more photos and videos, we have a flickr account at the following url:
http://flickr.com/photos/35090117@N05/collections/

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Leo was recently selected to represent first grade for his school in a local academic competition. There were nine schools participating and Leo won first prize, of which he was extremely proud. He put in quite a bit of work after school and at the weekends, and the four hour written exam was pretty heavy duty, so we felt we would reward him with a little vacation.

In the past, any trip or vacation we've gone on has been to see family, seeing as they all live so far away. However, for the first time since the kids were born, we decided to visit somewhere purely for the joy of going some place new.

Our destination was the Copper Canyon in Mexico. This area consists of four large canyons (and several smaller ones), each of which rivals the Grand Canyon. Abe and I had made a trip down there just after we were married, and had been blown away by both the culture and scenery. On that occasion we had gone to Creel and visited the canyons closest to it. This time, we decided to go to the much less touristy town of Guachochi.

On one night we stayed with a friend of ours who has a remote homestead in the high altitude pine forests near to Guachochi. Her place was absolutely beautiful. She has a series of log cabins, a couple of apple and cherry orchards, chickens, and about 100 resident hummingbirds. It was lovely catching up with her, and the cool climate was very welcome after a hot trip.

We also went up in a small plane to fly through the spectacular Sin Feroza canyon. It's more than a mile deep, interspersed with waterfalls and smaller canyons. The plane ride was fun and certainly gave a unique perspective. The airport even had a tiger, yes a real one, which the kids loved. It lived with a dog, and may have been retired from a circus.

It was a really lovely little vacation, and we definitely hope to do some more exploring in the area when the kids are older and ready for some serious hiking.

Monday, June 8, 2015

We planted a few trees up against a wall at the town house last year, to test out the espalier technique (whereby branches span out flat instead of as a canopy). The results so far have been amazing, in that a very young tree already has two ripe fruit on it, weeks ahead of our other peach trees. We're attributing the early ripening to the added heat that the wall stores, and we hope that this thermal mass help protect the trees from the late freezes that can sometimes kill a tree's blossoms.

Sunday, June 7, 2015

We have finally finished moving all our tools and materials into the workshop, and everything is organized and labelled. It took a while, but it was well worth it, as things are a lot easier to access.

With the work table also completed, we are ready to start on any number of projects that fill up our To-Do list.